Different actions on different passwords?

[Bill Oliver]

On Tue, 31 Dec 2013, Bruno Wolff III wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 31, 2013 at 14:13:11 +0000,
>   Bill Oliver <vendor at billoblog.com> wrote:
>> 
>> In the US you *can* be ordered to provide a password. Though appeals are 
>> still working their way up to the Supreme Court, various courts have said 
>> you must, while others have said that you may not.  See, for instance:
>> 
>> http://privacycast.com/encryption-key-disclosure-ordered-federal-court-fifth-amendment-filevault-bitlocker-truecrypt/
>> 
>> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130425/08171522834/judge-says-giving-up-your-password-may-be-5th-amendment-violation.shtml
>> 
>> Thus, it currently in the stage where it depends on what jurisdiction you 
>> are in.  I am not confident that the Supreme Court will side with privacy 
>> or 5th amendment rights.
>
> While this isn't settled, the main theme where people were ordered to provide 
> passwords have been where it was already known what was on the machine before 
> hand. Either because customs saw what appered to be child porn and then 
> couldn't get the data back afterwards or when someone stated they had some 
> particular information on their machine.
>
> And of course in civil cases (such as copyright suits), you might lose by 
> default if you don't provide the requested data.
>


Heh.  I used to say that about the people I knew in the US federal govt,
too.

billo